For
my Ethical Hackers. Grab a copy and let's see how good it is.
Because you know copies will leak.
Anthony
Cuthbertson reports:
A search engine more powerful than Google has been developed by the
US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), capable of
finding results within dark web networks such as Tor.
The Memex project was ostensibly developed for uncovering
sex-trafficking rings, however the platform can be used by law
enforcement agencies to uncover all kinds of illegal activity taking
place on the dark web, leading to concerns surrounding internet
privacy.
Read
more on IBT.
[From
DARPA:
The
Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for Memex is available at
http://go.usa.gov/BBc5.
To familiarize potential participants with the technical objectives
of Memex, DARPA has scheduled a Proposers' Day on Tuesday, February
18, 2014, in Arlington, Va. For details, visit
http://www.sa-meetings.com/memex.
Registration closes on February 13, 2014, at 5 p.m. ET. There will
be no on-site registration.
Imagine
that, a spy agency that actually does its job! (On the other hand,
the FBI can prove it was North Korea.)
Kaspersky
fingers NSA-style Equation Group for hard drive backdoor epidemic
Russian
security firm
Kaspersky has exposed what looks like evidence of backdoor
surveillance by the US National Security Agency (NSA)
Kaspersky
researchers claim to have uncovered one of the biggest, if not the
biggest, threat actor that it has seen in two decades.
The
security firm has dubbed this outfit the Equation Group, and its
toolbox 'the
Death Star of the Malware Galaxy',
and explained that the tools of its trade have hallmarks and themes
similar
to those of Stuxnet.
…
Two of these trojans, or modules, can be found deeply inserted in as
many as a dozen different makes of hard drive that are sold and
shipped to international waters.
The
malware is so deeply inserted into the firmware that it can survive
wipes, and "resurrect" itself indefinitely. Additional
'implants' add to the mix and can grab and store encrypted passwords,
for example.
I
love easy to remember slogans.
Shamoil
T. Shipchandler of Bracewell & Giuliani LLP has a great
commentary about how our country is doing on cybersecurity and
privacy. It begins:
When it comes right down to it, we are about as bad at
cybersecurity as Twitter’s CFO is at Twitter or North Korea is at
coming up with new political slogans to commemorate its 70th
anniversary.
…
The whole column is worth reading on The
National Law Review. I think he’s really hit on a great
metaphor for us:
As a prosecutor in a securities fraud case, I once had a witness
testify that the bad guy treated him and his fellow investors like
“mushrooms,” i.e., he “kept them in the dark and fed them
manure.” Okay, he didn’t actually say “manure,” but this is
a family blog (if only for kids with insomnia). But we
are all mushrooms when it comes to data privacy. Think
about it. Do you think about how your information is protected when
you swipe your credit card? Do you know how your doctor’s office
secures your personal health history? Or are you in the dark?
So maybe “a country of
mushrooms” isn’t the worst slogan in the world, if it
helps us pay attention to the privacy that we cede and the cyber
threats that we ignore.
(Related)
For my Security Management students. I hope they come out with more
than a 6 page PDF.
Embedding
a ‘Culture of Security’ Is the Best Defense
Increased
connectivity and data use have greatly heightened the risk of a major
security breach. But on top of the requisite technological
protections, one of the best security defenses organizations can have
is a “culture of security,” says Robert Coles, chief information
security officer at GlaxoSmithKline.
Get
the young ones used to being spied on, it make things easier when
they become adults.
Quadcopter
Malware Proves Connected Toys Are A Security Risk
Like
a subgroup of the Internet of Things, connected toys are the new
generation of children’s toys – often using Wi-Fi and an iOS or
Android-based remote control to manage and manipulate a car,
quadcopter, or Lego robot.
We’ve
recently learned that malware has been introduced to a quadcopter
toy, a revelation that has left security-conscious parents concerned.
If it can happen with one toy, what’s to say it couldn’t happen
with another?
And
if this was to be repeated with one or more toys, what might the
results be?
…
Rahul Sasi has created a demonstration
of his drone malware, Maldrone, a proof-of-concept that
highlights just how poor security in this area actually is.
The
future of “In Home” security risks.
“Hello!
This is Siri calling. Your home is being robbed. Would you like to
watch via your home security cameras? Oops, too late. They just
went in the bag.”
Future
Proofing Your Smart Home for Apple HomeKit Compatibility
As
the smart
home scene has geared up, everyone has been waiting to see what
Apple’s HomeKit will bring to the table—and we finally got a look
at it during this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. Here are some
of the most exciting products that we’ve seen, and some advice on
making sure you can use HomeKit with as many devices as possible.
Marketing
has finally realized that their customers value their privacy? “Then
we can make them pay for it!”
AT&T
Brings 1Gbps Internet To Kansas City, Charges $29 Extra If You Don’t
Want To Be Tracked
Google
Fiber launched in Kansas City, Missouri in September 2012, and now
AT&T is looking to creep in and compete toe-to-toe with its own
ultra high-speed fiber network.
…
The
$70 price that AT&T’s quotes for standalone Internet service is
comes with an added “bonus” — user tracking. That’s right;
AT&T will track all of your Internet activity so that it can
deliver targeted ads to your devices. The fine
print in AT&T’s documentation on GigaPower Internet
Preferences states:
When
you select AT&T Internet Preferences, we can offer you our best
pricing on GigaPower because you let us use your individual Web
browsing information,
like the search terms you enter and the web pages you visit, to
tailor ads and offers to your interests.
“Tell
'em what they want to hear and they will go home and declare
victory!”
Ukraine
crisis: Battle rages for Debaltseve despite truce
Rebels
say they have taken most of Debaltseve, a transport hub, but the
government says it is still in control.
International
observers tasked with monitoring the ceasefire have been unable to
enter the town.
Earlier,
both sides failed to begin withdrawing heavy weapons, despite a
Monday deadline agreed in the truce.
For
my students. Could be useful.
Edit
the Text and Images of your PDF file in the Browser
If
you need to make changes in an existing PDF file, you need to get
hold of the original document that was used to create the PDF, make
the edits in the source document and export it as a PDF again. This
is the best option since the document’s layout and formatting will
be preserved in the new PDF file and you don’t even need an
external PDF
editor like Adobe Acrobat.
However,
if you do not have access to the source document, you can still edit
your PDF files in the browser using the free Word app. It may not be
able to handle PDF files with complex layouts, or PDFs that are
mostly comprised of charts and images but for text based PDF, Word is
a probably a good options for fixing typos or manipulating text and
images in PDFs.
(Related)
More tools for students.
9
Must Have Modern Apps For Viewing, Editing & Managing Documents
What
will we lose? No one will be able to read the Declaration of
Independence in the original? Will we really trade Cursive for a
“more useful” skill or will we just teach less over all?
Cursive
Writing Is Obsolete; Schools Should Teach Programming Instead
[Opinion]
Cursive
writing is an anachronism. Spending any classroom time on it is
comparable to teaching how to use an abacus: it’s interesting as a
history lesson, and probably offers some side benefits, but it is not
at all practical as a day-to-day skill in the modern, connected
world.
For
my wino friends. I should have thought of this one. If nothing
else, talking about crowdsourcing while tasting their wine would have
made for an interesting day.
Entrepreneur
Creates Crowdsourcing Model for Wine
…
Gormley launched NakedWines.com
in 2008 after losing his job. With the tough economy, he and his
partners created a much needed service for one struggling industry.
They came up with a unique crowdsourcing model for wines.
…
Here’s how it works. Wine buyers can sign up on the site as
“Angels.” Angels invest $40 a month. That money goes into their
“piggy banks” so that they can use it on future wine orders. But
by paying that money up front each month, it allows NakedWines.com to
invest in local wineries.
Then
those local wineries can offer their wines on the site at a
discounted price, usually about 40 to 60 percent of normal retail
prices.
For
my new students. It's amazing how many don't know most of these
commands.
Windows
Shortcuts 101 – The Ultimate Keyboard Shortcut Guide
Dilbert
on North Korea? Or perhaps on the President's reliance on the FBI?
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